


Speechless

by BimeyMooMimey



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: AU, Bullying, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Muteness, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2018-12-12 21:05:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11745171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BimeyMooMimey/pseuds/BimeyMooMimey
Summary: A new girl comes to Hawkins, and the entire town takes notice. Little does Mike Wheeler know that she's about to turn his life upside-down...without even saying a word.





	1. The Newcomer to Hawkins

There was a new girl coming to town; it was the talk of the entire school. For such a small town like Hawkins, everyone knew pretty much everything. And in Hawkins Middle School, news spread fast. Apparently, after many years of working in Indianapolis as a police office, former Chief Jim Hopper had moved back to Hawkins, Indiana…and had brought with him an adopted thirteen-year-old girl.

Not much was known about her, but mere days before she was supposed to attend class rumors were already swarming of her. Some students said that Hopper adopted her after finding her on a gruesome crime scene, covered in blood from a massacre that only she survived. Others suggested that, unbelievably, she was a wanted criminal, and Hopper was taking her to Hawkins to lay low while the cops got off her trail. Some even theorized that she wasn’t even a “new” girl at all: that Hopper’s late daughter, Sarah, had never died at all, and that he was finally ready for her to return to normality after a life-long lie.

Michael Wheeler, however, did not believe any of these outlandish rumors, nor did he really care. As far as he was concerned, a million new kids could be added to their small school and it wouldn’t make a lick of difference to him and his small, outcast group of friends. There was Dustin, otherwise known around school as “toothless”; Lucas, also known as “midnight”; Will, but also called “the fairy”; Max, “the butch”; and, of course, Mike, who was simply called “frogface.”

Needless to say, they didn’t have many friends.

Not that that mattered to anyone. To Mike, they were all of the friends that he felt he would ever need. Dustin had a sense of humor that would leave you sprawling on the floor with laughter; Lucas was dependable, brave, and loyal to a fault; Will was caring and compassionate, and always had a shoulder to lean on; and Max, even though she was the newest member of their group, had a spunk and charm that already made her an indispensable member of their party…even if she still thought Dungeons and Dragons was still “too nerdy for her.”

They were bullied and laughed at, of course. Constantly. Mike had grown to live with the harassment towards himself, even though he still hated it when any of his other friends were picked on. But at the end of the day, he had friends who were there for him. He didn’t care what the other kids thought of them. And he most certainly didn’t care about a supposed new girl.

That is, until she showed up.

Even though there was an audible buzz across the entire school the day she showed up, Mike tried his best to ignore it. For him, it would just be another boring Monday, he told himself. But as he approached his locker, he could hear the everyday chatter grow quieter into excited whispers about the new girl at school. He guessed that her locker was probably close to his. Not that it mattered to him though.

Then Mike saw her, standing only feet away occupying the space of a once-empty locker. Her hair was short…really short, especially for a girl her age. She had very pale, white skin. She was also very small and almost fragile in a sense. When she pulled her face away from the locker, he saw a nervous and scared expression on her face…and what new kid wouldn’t be a little scared to start alone at a new school? But for some reason he wasn’t able to grasp, Mike couldn’t tear his eyes away from her.

Suddenly, the girl’s darting eyes shifted from around the hallway to directly at him. It took a second for Mike to realize that she had even registered him as a person, but when he did he also realized that she had likely noticed him staring at her. Crap. When did he become so nervous all of the sudden? _Say something, you idiot!_ His brain told him.

“Uh, hi,” he said quickly, almost blurting it out. _Real smooth, Wheeler._ She looked a little startled at first, but then gave a polite smile in return. She didn’t say anything.

“I, um, I take it you’re the new girl, right?” he asked. For some reason, he felt almost an obligation to try to talk to her. After all, no one else seemed to be even trying to communicate with her; Mike figured he might as well. The new girl nodded in response. “That’s cool,” he said, “my name’s Mike.”

Expecting the girl to offer her name in response, she simply gave him a nervous smile and walked off, closing her locker behind her. Mike just stood there, baffled and mortified. Did the new girl really not even acknowledge his presence outside of a silent nod and a polite smile? She must have been notified earlier by some of the popular girls not to talk to him. And, if he was honest, Mike couldn’t really blame her. He was a little frustrated at the new girl, but he was angrier at himself for thinking that she would possibly want to communicate with him. Embarrassed and red in the face, Mike Wheeler grudgingly grabbed his books from his locker and went to his first class of the day: science.

As he passed by the desks in the classroom, he saw the new girl sitting in the front row. He tried to avoid eye contact as he walked past her, sitting down at his desk in the second row next to Lucas.

“What’s up with you?” Lucas asked with a furrowed brow, noticing Mike’s frustrated expression.

“Don’t worry about it,” Mike responded, trying his best not to snap back. Lucas shrugged as they both turned their attention towards the front of the class, where their science teacher, Mr. Clarke, was standing.

“Hello, class,” Mr. Clarke said with a perky smile on his face, calling everyone to attention. Once the class had died down about from talking, he continued. “Before we begin, I’m sure many of you have noticed that we have a new student joining us here today. Everyone, meet Eleanor. She has what is known as aphonia.”

The class began to murmur amongst themselves, not knowing what the term meant. Mike furrowed his eyebrow. “Do you know what that means?” Lucas whispered, looking at Mike. He shook his head.

“What it means,” Mr. Clarke continued, raising his voice to quiet the class again, “is that her larynx, also known as her ‘voicebox’, is paralyzed, or severely injured, meaning that she is mute. She can’t speak. That being said, I expect everyone here to treat her with respect. She is just as intelligent as you or me.”

Mike looked at the girl a few seats away from him in surprise. So _that_ had explained why she had been so silent. He now felt angry at himself all over again, this time just because he had assumed so much about her when she hadn’t even said a single word to him. As Mr. Clarke moved on to the actual lesson, Mike couldn’t help but play his and Eleanor’s original interaction over and over again in his mind. He wasn’t sure what had compelled him to say something in the first place…and he couldn’t explain why he felt the need to try to talk to her again.

He glanced at Eleanor and couldn’t help but notice that much of the eyes of the rest of the class were on her, too. There had never been a mute student or anything of the like in Hawkins before. Some were probably just curious, but Mike could tell that others were staring at her much more judgmentally. _So much for treating her with respect,_ Mike thought sarcastically. And he could also tell that she didn’t really enjoy the extra attention either: Eleanor was nervously glancing across the room, catching every little whisper sent her way, and fidgeting with her desk. Mike immediately felt bad for her, and tried his best not to look at her for the rest of class.

Still, though, he couldn’t get this new girl out of his head. He knew that Hawkins could be very judgmental and unaccepting when it came to people who were new or unordinary, and especially both. Maybe the reason he wanted to talk to her again was just to let her know that not everybody here was like that? That maybe there were some people, like him, who had her back? Yeah. That was probably it. Regardless, he decided he would try to catch her after class.

As soon as the bell rang and the first class of the day let out, Eleanor was one of the first out the door. She grabbed her backpack in a hurry and rushed for the exit.

“What’s her deal?” Lucas muttered to Mike, giving her a sideways glance.

Mike rolled his eyes. “Don’t be an ass, dude,” he said, throwing his backpack around his shoulder and following her out. Unfortunately, as he turned into the hallway it looked like she had run into an unsavory bunch: Troy and his posse.

Troy Harrington was one of the more popular kids at school for whatever reason, and one of the people who gave Mike and his friends a hard time. For years now, he had consistently enjoyed belittling the people around him and beating up people he thought were inferior to him. Yet despite that, he still managed to get people to follow him around: there was James and Frank, his goons, and he even had a quote-unquote “girlfriend,” Tina. Although their relationship wasn’t really based on anything. They were all shallow and cruel, and they always took pleasure in bullying people who were different; and as Mike rounded the corner, he saw that Eleanor had accidentally bumped right into Troy as he was walking down the hallway.

“Hey, watch where you’re going, you idiot!” Troy said angrily as he halted, looking at the person who dared touch him. His nostrils flared up as he stared at her. “Who the hell are you?”

“That must be the new girl,” Tina sneered, coming to Troy’s side to stare down at the small girl. She still hadn’t moved. “Although the haircut makes her look like a boy,” Tina teased, earning a sadistic smirk from Troy that made Mike seethe.

Eleanor, of course, remained silent, almost as if she was paralyzed to the spot. “What’s the matter? Say something, you freak!” James spat at her, standing behind Troy.

“Hey, back off,” Mike said in a sudden burst of bravery, stepping into the fray. Eleanor’s eyes darted from the bullies to him, and for some reason he couldn’t explain her stare gave him a little bit more courage. He clenched his fists as Troy’s eyes locked onto his.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Frogface,” Troy drawled. Mike felt heat rise to his cheeks. “Why am I not surprised that _you_ of all people are coming to the new kid’s defense?”

Mike glared at the bully, but copied his mocking tone. “Really, Troy? Picking on a girl? That’s a little beneath even you, don’t you think?”

Troy’s face transformed from one of dark amusement to anger. “You’re lucky we’re at school, Wheeler. Otherwise, you’d be dead,” he growled like a feral animal hungry for blood. He jutted his head back to his cronies. “C’mon, let’s go,” he said, pushing past Mike. Tina and the others followed him, shooting them both dirty looks. That just left Mike and Eleanor alone together in the hallway, and he once again felt her wide eyes upon him. He wasn’t sure exactly why, but he suddenly felt incredibly nervous.

“Sorry about those guys, they’re real mouthbreathers,” he said anxiously, meeting the silent girl’s eyes. She furrowed her brow, and Mike could tell she didn’t know what the term meant. “Um, jerks. Assholes. Y’know,” he said, trying to offer an explanation, “it’s best to just ignore them the best you can.” Eleanor’s eyebrows relaxed in understanding. For someone who supposedly couldn’t speak a word, in that moment Mike could pretty easily tell what she was trying to express.

In the back of his mind, he thought that he should really be getting to class, but at the same time he didn’t want to just walk away. So, he kept talking. “You’re, um, you’re Eleanor, right?” he asked, already knowing the answer and for some reason wanting to keep their semi-conversation going. She nodded. “That’s cool,” Mike said, feeling stupid immediately after saying it. What made her name cool? Idiot. “Um, well I know you’re new here, so if you need anything just let me know, okay?”

Eleanor cocked her head to the side and, with what seemed like a bemused smile, pointed to her mouth. Oh, right. Sometimes, Mike’s words didn’t catch up to his brain. How was she supposed to let him know if she needed help if she couldn’t talk? “Oh, I’m sorry,” Mike said, blushing profusely. “Um, I don’t know sign language…do you have a notebook or something?” he asked, an idea coming to mind. She shook her head, a small, apologetic frown forming on her lips.

“It’s okay! Hold on,” Mike said, opening his backpack and clumsily reaching for one of his notebooks. It had a plain, white cover with countless pages of blank, lined paper inside. Without having a clear plan in mind of what he was doing, he tore out the first few pages, which contained a few scattered notes he had taken from class. For good measure, he also grabbed a blue pen from his bag and handed both the notebook and the pen in her direction.

“Here, take it,” he said. Eleanor’s eyes widened, and Mike could see the hesitation written on her face. “It’s okay!” he tried to assure her. “I have, like, ten other notebooks or something. If you have this, you’ll be able to write down what you need so people will understand you better. So if you need help with anything, just write something down and tap me on the shoulder.”

After considering it for a moment, Eleanor gave him a smile and nodded, accepting the pen and notebook from Mike and immediately opening it to jot something down. She held it up and showed it to him. Mike looked at the white piece of paper and read in blue ink and mildly-messy handwriting:

_Thank you Mike ☺_

She had remembered his name from their brief conversation earlier that day. She had even added a tiny smiley face at the end. Mike didn’t know why, but that made him feel incredibly happy.

“No problem!” Mike said, trying to sound casual but also unintentionally mimicking the smiley face on the paper. “Hey, I don’t know if you already have some people you know here, but if you want you can sit with me and my friends during lunch. It’s a pretty small table in the back, but they’re cool people.”

Eleanor gave him an enthusiastic nod that Mike wasn’t expecting from the shy girl, but he was thrilled nonetheless. “Awesome!” he said as the school bell rang, denoting the start of the next class. They had been talking…or, rather, _he_ had been talking for so long that they were now both late for class.

“Oh, crap, we should really get to class…” Mike said regretfully, zipping up his backpack. “Sorry for making you late, Eleanor.”

Just as he was about to leave, Eleanor tapped him on the shoulder. Holding up one finger as if to say “one minute,” she began writing down in the notebook again. She showed it to him.

_Call me El._

Mike read the three-word sentence and smiled. “El. I like it,” he said. “Do you know where your next class is?” El nodded. “Okay, cool. Well, I’ll see you at lunch, El.” El grinned, nodding again and walking off in the opposite direction, notebook in her hands. Mike knew that he should really get to class, but he felt frozen to the spot for a moment, just watching her go.

When Mike arrived late to English, he gave a halfhearted excuse and went quickly to his seat. As he sat down, his friend Will quietly asked him why he was so late, and then what was it he found so funny. Mike furrowed his brow, but then noticed that a goofy smile was still plastered to his face. Mike simply shrugged, replying that he had a feeling that today might be a good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! After a fairly long hiatus from my first fic I am back to writing! I had a few ideas for another fic, whether it be a kind of dark Jonathan/Nancy/Steve story or a sequel to my first Byeler fic, but I ended up landing on this idea because it just came to me the most naturally. So sorry for the long wait! This is going to be a bit of a slow burn, and it will eventually move into some more supernatural territory, but that won't be for a little while. I really hope you all enjoy this story! Please leave a comment if you enjoyed or have any suggestions on how I can improve.
> 
> Also, a quick disclaimer: I do not know nor have I ever met anyone in real life who is actually mute, either through a physical condition or social anxiety. My knowledge on this topic is limited, unfortunately. That being said, I hope any inaccuracies in my portrayal of muteness in this story do not take away anyone's actual enjoyment of it. Thank you :)


	2. Lunch Table Talk

“Wait, what?” Dustin said, taking his half-eaten sandwich out of his mouth. Everyone else had turned to Mike with wide eyes. What had meant to be just a casual statement had attracted the attention of everyone at their small table. Will simply stared at him curiously, while Max and Lucas raised their eyebrows.

“I said, I invited the new girl to come sit with us for lunch,” Mike repeated, looking back at his friends’ confused faces. “Why are you guys staring me like that?”

“You actually initiated a conversation?” Max asked, smirking. “With a _girl?_ ”

Mike groaned. “It’s _not_ like that,” he said, trying his best to explain. “I saw her getting picked on by Troy and Tina in the hallway, and I helped her out. She seemed kind of afraid and alone, so I thought it would be a good idea to invite her to sit with us.”

“But isn’t she mute?” Lucas asked, his brow furrowing.

“Yeah, like, how were you able to talk to her if she can’t hear you?” Dustin asked, his head to the side.

Will chuckled, rolling his eyes. “She’s not deaf, doofus. Being mute means she can’t speak.”

“Yeah, and besides, why should that matter?” Mike asked them. “Besides, she has a notebook, so if she wants to say something she can just write it down.” He pointedly decided not to mention that he was the one who gave her the notebook. “Come on, guys, she has it hard enough as it is, the least you can do is try to be nice and accepting to her. She’s really cool!”

Mike was more than a little irritated with his friends, although deep down he knew he probably understood their weird reactions. Out of everyone in their small group, he was probably the most reserved and least outgoing of the bunch. It had taken forever for him to get to know, let alone like, Max when she had first become friends with everyone. He originally had the feeling that Dustin and Lucas only accepted her because they had crushes on her. Eventually the two of them had become friends, but for Mike it had taken a while. So, the fact that he had invited a total stranger to their table was understandably surprising, he supposed.

Mike still wasn’t really sure why he had done it, either.

“Well, if Wheeler says she’s cool, I’m ready to hear her out,” Max said, breaking the brief moment of tension at the table. “Even if most people he thinks are cool end up being dweebs.”

“Yeah Mike, we’ll be nice, don’t worry,” Will said, and Dustin and Lucas murmured their consent as well.

Mike breathed a sigh of relief, looking around the cafeteria. It took a minute before he spotted her, walking around with his former notebook in one hand and a brown paper bag in the other. She was glancing across the lunch room at the seemingly-infinite number of lunch tables with a nervous expression on her face. El’s gaze across the cafeteria eventually fell on Mike, and when they made eye contact he immediately felt heat rise to his cheeks. He waved his hand to her, gesturing for her to come to their small, circular-shaped table.

“Hi, El!” Mike said, standing up to greet her. El approached the table with a small smile and a wave of ‘hello’. “Guys, this is El,” Mike said, introducing her to the group. “El, these are my friends, Max, Will, Dustin, and Lucas.”

“Nice to meet you, El,” Max said, grinning up at her. “It’s nice of you to come save me from the overwhelming masculinity at this table,” she quipped sarcastically, giving El a smirk as she motioned for her to sit down between her and Mike. El returned her amused smile and opened her notebook to a blank page as she sat down, quickly writing on one page and showing it to the table:

_I’ll try my best. Nice to meet you all_

“Don’t listen to her, El, we’re not _that_ bad,” Dustin said, rolling his eyes at the redhead. “Well, maybe Lucas can be a little overwhelming.”

“Shut up,” Lucas murmured, eating his lunch from the other side of the table. Mike’s eyes rested on him for a moment, and to his surprise he noticed that he seemed a little uncomfortable. He found this strange, especially because out of all of his friends Lucas was one of the most outgoing, with the exception of maybe Dustin. He fit easily into most social situations, and so the fact that he was being strangely quiet was a little disconcerting.

“Hey El, where did you get that notebook?” Will asked, looking at the plain white notebook. Mike immediately froze. Will was one of the most observant people he had ever known, and almost every little detail never went unnoticed under his watchful eye. So, chances were, he probably recognized the plain notebook that El had as originally Mike’s.

 _Mike gave it to me,_ El wrote, causing Mike to blush a deep scarlet and avoid the surprised and bemused stares of most of his friends. Why was it that big of a deal? There was no reason to be weird about it. He had just given a notebook he had barely used…to a mute girl he hardly knew…

…okay, maybe he understood why it was a little weird.

“That was nice of him,” Will said, smiling genuinely at the girl. Knowing that his friends would probably tease him endlessly for this, Mike gave him a silent, pleading stare for him to change the topic. “You should decorate the cover of it to make it more interesting,” Will suggested, looking at the plain, white cover of the notebook. “I have some stickers and colored pencils from my Art class, I could help you if you want.”

El beamed, taking her pen to write back in the notebook: _I’d like that a lot._

Mike breathed a sigh of relief. “Will’s really good at art, he’ll be able to draw pretty much anything you want on there,” he added, happy for the change in conversation. El smiled warmly in response, closing her notebook and opening her brown paper bag lunch. She took out a small sandwich and began delicately eating it.

At that point, the conversation shifted back to their normal dialogue and bickering: Dustin playing with his food and Lucas making some comment about how it was gross, Max made a snide remark about one of their teachers that got them all laughing, Will mentioned how they had installed a new machine at the arcade. El just sat there, nibbling at her sandwich, seeming to grow less nervous and more comfortable as the attention of the table shifted away from her. El even smiled amusedly at some of Dustin’s lame jokes, much to his glee.

“So, El, where are you from?” Dustin asked casually, although Mike could tell that there was something underneath his voice that betrayed a deeper interest. Everyone had heard the wild and outlandish rumors that had spread around the school like wildfire; her muteness probably only made people more intrigued. Even Mike had to admit that he was a little curious about her background, but his top priority was making sure El was comfortable at the new school. For some reason. He didn’t want to pressure her with unending questions, especially because she had a limited capacity to respond.

El didn’t seem to be too bothered by it, however. Putting down her sandwich for the time being, she opened her notebook again and wrote down:

_I used to live in Indianapolis with Chief Hopper._

Dustin and Lucas leaned over from the other side of the table to read it. “So, Chief Hopper obviously isn’t your dad. Is he, like, an uncle? Or, another relative or something?” Lucas asked skeptically. Mike shot him an annoyed glare; why was he being so goddamn prying?

El shook her head, pausing before taking her pen to write something down on the next line. Mike could tell that, compared with her usual quick handwriting, she was choosing the words she wrote down much more carefully.

_We’re not related. He found me abandoned on a crime scene a couple of years ago and adopted me afterwards. My parents died when I was young, I don’t have any other family._

Lucas’s expression softened as he read what she had wrote. “Oh,” he said quietly, “I’m sorry, El.” Everyone looked towards the shy, quiet girl in concern, and Mike worried that they had crossed a line that they would not be able to step back over.

El simply shrugged, almost as if to say “it sucks, but what can you do?” She picked up her sandwich and began picking at it again. Mike could tell that that line of questioning had unsettled her and made her uncomfortable, and even though he felt the need to comfort her he also didn’t want to overstep his boundaries…particularly because the two of them had only met that morning. Regardless, he didn’t want any more questions directed her way, especially regarding her past.

“So, Mike, how’s the campaign going?” Will asked in another much-appreciated effort to change the topic.

Mike smiled thankfully. Will was always good at reading a moment well. “It’s coming along,” he said cryptically, teasing his friends. The boys were planning on playing Dungeons and Dragons that Sunday night, and Mike, the dungeon master, was notorious for not giving anything away about future campaigns to his friends. Dustin and Lucas groaned as Max rolled her eyes, uninterested in the conversation.

“Come on, Wheeler, just a little hint?” Dustin whined in a pleading voice. “Can you at least tell us if a Thessalhydra is involved in any way? Because if there is, I need to prepare for that shit ahead of time!”

Mike tried to hide the wide, taunting grin on his face as he formulated a response. “I guess you’ll have to wait and see,” he smirked as Dustin slumped back in his chair, moping. Mike was taking so much pleasure in watching his friends’ frustration that he jumped a little bit when he felt a tap on the shoulder from next to him. He turned towards El, who had written a question down for him:

_What’s a thesilhydro?_

“Oh,” Mike said, his cheeks flaring a deep scarlet. “Um, it’s just a little game we play.” For some reason, the usually exciting topic of Dungeons and Dragons was now embarrassing, especially when El was entered into the equation. He didn’t really know why, but he didn’t want her to think that he was… _nerdy_ , or something like that. Maybe it was just girls in general that made him shy talking about guy stuff like that, he told himself.

…although, he had had no problem with introducing Max to Dungeons and Dragons, even when she had dismissed it as a nerdy game.

El furrowed her eyebrows and cocked her head curiously, indicating that she was interested in hearing more. Mike decided he might as well oblige. “Umm, it’s called Dungeons and Dragons,” he said nervously, avoiding eye contact with her out of embarrassment. “It’s basically, like, a role-playing game where you get to create your own characters and go on an adventure…” he trailed off, looking to everyone else for any other information worth mentioning.

“There’s monsters! Don’t forget to mention that you get to fight monsters!” Dustin blurted out excitedly.

“There’s a lot of fantasy elements to it, and you can cast spells and magic and everything. It’s really cool!” Will added. Mike looked over at El, and noticed her beaming excitedly the more they described the game to her.

“Careful, boys, you don’t want to indoctrinate her too early into your nerdy ways,” Max said, smirking.

El blushed sheepishly and shrugged with an amused smile on her face. She jotted something down in her notebook and showed it to the table, much to the surprise of Mike:

_It sounds cool to me. How do I play?_

“Wait, seriously?” Lucas asked, almost flabbergasted. “You want to know how to play Dungeons and Dragons?” El nodded, smiling curiously.

“Um…well, it’s a little complicated to explain in full here…” Mike said, although much of his initial embarrassment was now gone. There was just _so_ much to go over, and not having everything in front of him at the lunch table made it difficult. “Maybe you could come over to my house after school and we could explain it to you?” The question had slipped out before he had even realized he was saying it. Why had he asked that? He had literally just met her this morning and he had already invited her to his house! In what world was El going to accept that? What the hell was he thinking?

But El didn’t seem to think it was forward at all. In fact, her eyes seemed to light up as she nodded, accepting the invitation. Surprised but elated, Mike beamed at her. “Awesome!” he said, regrettably feeling a blush forming on his cheeks.

After a few more minutes of eating and laughing as Dustin tried his best to excitedly explain the basic premises of Dungeons and Dragons in the most confusing way possible, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch period. Everyone agreed to meet back up outside by the bike rack after school, and head to Mike’s house afterwards.

“Okay, see you guys later!” Mike said, grabbing his backpack and wrapping it around his shoulder. “I’ll see you after school, El,” Mike told her as they walked away from each other. El gave him one last, warm smile and a gentle wave of “goodbye,” and walked off. He just stood there, watching her go. Something about the way she had given that smile made him feel happy…giddy, even. He couldn’t really explain what it was, but at that moment he felt like he was the luckiest person in the world for receiving a smile like that.

“You’ve really got the hots for her, huh?” Mike spun around, finding Max standing behind him with a smirk on her face. Everyone else had left for class, but it seemed like she had stuck around. Mike felt his face turn four shades darker as he shot her a dirty look.

“I do _not_ ,” Mike retorted, rolling his eyes.

Max snorted, crossing her arms. “Yeah, right. Michael Wheeler, one of the most reserved and antisocial kids in all of Hawkins, one day randomly decides to invite a new student to his house, _a girl no less…_ ”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Mike interrupted, grumbling. He put his hands in his pockets and sighed, looking at his feet as he tried to fight back a smile tugging at his lips just thinking about her. Even he wasn’t so oblivious to realize that he was starting to fall for El; and Max seemed to be able to read him like a book anyways. “…fine, maybe a little,” he grudgingly admitted.

Max’s eyes widened and her jaw figuratively dropped in surprise. “Holy shit!” Max said, a grin spreading across her face. “I knew you liked her, but I didn’t think you’d actually tell me that!”

Mike groaned. “Max, quit it, seriously,” he said pleadingly. “Just keep it to yourself, alright?”

“It’s written all over your face every time you were looking at her during lunch,” Max replied. “But don’t worry, Wheeler, I promise I won’t tell another living soul.”

Mike sighed. “Even if I do like El, it doesn’t matter. I doubt she would ever like me back…” Max rolled her eyes, earning her an elbow from Mike as he continued, “…but more than that, it’s the last thing someone like her needs right now. She has it hard enough as it is not being able to talk, and being new. I just figured it would be nice for her to have some friends while she’s still settling in.”

“Hey, I never disagreed. I think she’ll fit in with us just fine,” Max said, giving him a genuine smile and shrugging lightly. “I have a good feeling about her.”

Surprised but happy by the genuineness in her tone, Mike smiled back at her. “Me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for a bit of a wait for this chapter! Going forward I hope to get out a chapter at least once a week, but I'll see. I have a LOT planned for this story, but just a warning that things are going to be developing slowly. I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, more to come :)


	3. Basement Dwellers

Mike was beginning to doubt that Max was the only one who caught on to his crush on El. When they had all met up by the bike rack after school, Mike realized that El didn’t have a bike; so, naturally, he casually suggested that she can sit on the back of his bike. After all, she was small enough that she could be able to fit. She accepted, and as she hopped on the back of his seat Mike could have sworn that some of the other guys were giving him weird looks. He didn’t know what was so weird about it…even though he did feel his heartbeat quicken once El wrapped her arms around his torso for stability.

He just hoped she didn’t feel it, too.

As the group of friends approached the Wheeler household, they slowed their bikes. Mike helped El off of his bike as everyone else rested their bikes in the garage. Max gave him a knowing look as Mike rolled his eyes at her. He figured she was probably going to be annoying about him and El for a while, so he might as well get used to it.

“We usually hang out in the basement,” Mike explained to El as they walked towards the front door, “that’s also where the board and stuff is for Dungeons and Dragons, so we’ll be able to explain all that to you.” El smiled in response. She had put the white notebook in her backpack for safekeeping, so until they got downstairs she could only really respond by smiling and shaking or nodding her head to a yes or no question. It was something that Mike was still getting used to, but he was surprisingly becoming comfortable with this type of communication.

As Mike opened the front door, he noticed his mother in the kitchen, home early from work. “Michael, is that you?” she called out, placing much of her focus on mixing who-knows-what into a pot.

“Yeah, Mom, it’s us,” Mike said as the group of six filed into the kitchen. His mother glanced up from her cooking to give them all a warm smile, and her eyes fell on the silent, new girl who returned her gaze with an anxious smile.

“Hello, I don’t believe we’ve met,” she said politely to El, putting down the pot and wooden spoon onto the kitchen counter. “What’s your name, dear?”

El’s eyes darted nervously to Mike. “Her name’s El, Mom. She’s, um, she’s mute,” he explained awkwardly to his mother.

“Oh! You must be the young girl Chief Hopper brought in,” she said, smiling happily at the silent child. Mike was surprised his mother knew about it, but upon reflection it made sense. The talk about the new girl had far surpassed Hawkins Middle School to encompass the entire town; after all, the former chief of police of Hawkins was returning to his original post, so he would have been more surprised if she hadn’t heard about a new girl in retrospect. What took him more off guard was when his mother started making gestures with her hands, pointing at herself and at El multiple times.

El seemed to be perplexed by her hand movements. “Mom, what are you doing?” Mike asked, confused.

“I was using sign language,” she explained turning to her son. She seemed to be very proud of herself. “I was just telling her that my name is Karen, it was nice to meet you, and I learned sign language back in high school.” She noticed the confused look on El’s face and looked back at her. “Don’t you know sign language, sweetie?”

El shook her head, smiling apologetically. “She can talk through writing what she wants to say down on a piece of paper,” Mike told his mother.

“Oh, well I’m sorry, dear,” Mike’s mother said, giving El a warm smile that seemed to calm her nerves a bit. “I’ll be here in the kitchen. El, if you need anything, just hand me a note, alright?” El nodded, giving her a smile. The rest of the kids went downstairs to the basement as Mike and El followed them. Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, Mike hoped that that exchange hadn’t made El too anxious. If he was able to tell anything about her from the lunch period with the rest of his friends, she didn’t really like being the center of attention.

As they went downstairs and plopped down their backpacks and schoolbooks, Mike noticed Lucas giving El a weird look. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but his friend was looking at her rather…suspiciously.

“Why don’t you know sign?” Lucas asked abruptly, looking at El. The way he asked it was almost accusatorially, taking everyone, including El, off guard. 

“Lucas, don’t be rude!” Mike shot back, giving him a warning look.

Lucas lowered the intensity in his voice, but to Mike’s frustration he kept going on this line of questioning. “Sorry, but I would have thought you would know sign language, seeing as how it’s one of the only ways people like you can communicate. Why don’t you know it?” He asked again.

El gave Mike a nervous look before she reached inside her backpack to grab the notebook Mike gave her. She jotted down a quick response:

_I never learned sign language. They never taught it to me._

“They? Who’s they? Do you mean Hopper?” Lucas asked, continuing to press El with questions. This time, El seemed to be more distressed, becoming more agitated at this line of questioning. Reluctantly, she shook her head, not offering any other clarification; but Lucas still looked at her expectantly, daring her not to respond.

“Lucas, seriously, stop it!” Mike stood in front of El protectively, blocking Lucas from her line of vision. “She obviously doesn’t want to answer your questions. Leave her alone!”

Startled, Lucas took a step back. The rest of their friends watched the standoff with hitched breaths as Mike and Lucas stared each other down with a mix of emotions. For Mike, he was confused and angry. Why was Lucas acting like such an asshole? All he had done today was antagonize El and question every aspect of his life. Why couldn’t he just help her feel accepted in this new community?

Lucas was the first to back off from the standoff. “Fine,” he muttered, face flushed with anger and embarrassment. To everyone’s surprise, he walked away to his backpack and slugged it over his shoulder. “I need to go,” he informed everyone, glaring at Mike before he stormed out, heading out the back door of the basement. Dustin, Will, and Max stared back at him in shock, and El simply stood there nervously, obviously uncomfortable and biting her lower lip.

Dustin’s mouth was agape. “What the shit was that all about?” he questioned, eyes wide.

Will’s expression was more concerned, his brow furrowed. “Should we follow him?” he asked Mike, and suddenly all eyes in the room were on him.

Mike was still angry and flustered at Lucas and his entire behavior. If he wanted to storm off with no explanation, then he couldn’t care less. It was his choice to be a dick to his friends. “No, don’t waste your energy,” he said, trying to calm himself down as he sat down on the couch. “He’ll be fine.”

An awkward silence encompassed the room as they all processed what happened. Mike could tell that El was getting jittery from the uncomfortable quiet, and he painfully realized that she might feel guilty for Lucas running off. Desperately wanting to make her feel welcome again, he moved over on the couch, motioning that El could sit down next to him. She did, gently taking a seat on the cushion next to him and placing the plain, white notebook on her lap. She avoided eye contact with him, or anyone, for that matter, as she tapped on its cover nervously. Even though she couldn’t talk, Mike felt like he knew exactly how she was feeling in that moment.

“Hey, El, do you still have that notebook?” Will asked the small girl, finally breaking the silence that had taken hold of the group. El’s eyes quickly darted from the notebook on her lap to Will. She held it up in the air with a quizzical expression on her face, as if to say “this notebook?”

Will reached into his backpack and placed a pack of markers, colored pencils, and a wide assortment of stickers on the table in front of them. “Here. I got these from my art class,” Will said, laying them all out for her to see. “I told you earlier today that I could help you decorate your notebook…if you still want to do that?”

A small smile began to form on El’s lips as she nodded, placing the notebook down onto the table in the middle of the room. Will grabbed a few colored pencils and passed El a few markers. El took a pink one, and held a yellow marker out in front of Mike. It took him a few seconds to realize that she wanted him to take it to draw on the notebook as well.

“Oh, um, I’m not really that good at art,” Mike said, his face flushing in embarrassment as El looked at him quizzically. “I would probably ruin it,” he added, chuckling nervously. But El was persistent, rolling her eyes lightheartedly and forcing the marker into his hand. Mike felt his heartbeat quicken as El’s hand wrapped around his for a brief moment, placing the marker in his palm and gently wrapping his fingers around it before she let go.

El gave him a smile that made it impossible for Mike to deny the invitation. “Maybe I can draw a little something,” he said, returning the smile. El beamed, and proceeded to hand markers and colored pencils to Dustin and Max as well, who eagerly accepted them. It was a nice reprieve from the somberness of the past few minutes, and soon everyone was coloring and drawing on the cover of El’s notebook.

“What do you want us to draw?” Dustin asked. El shrugged as if to say that he could draw whatever he wanted. Nearly buzzing with excitement, Dustin grabbed the markers and begin to furiously color in a portion of the notebook. Max laughed at him and pulled her chair closer to the table, leaning in to draw a picture next to Dustin’s as the two of them fought over space on the notebook cover. Will had already gotten a bunch of colored pencils and was using it to draw a very detailed picture. Mike, in the meantime, had no confidence in his drawing ability and no idea of _what_ to draw. But he eventually come up with something and drew it in markers.

Once they were all finished, El looked at the notebook with a grin on her face. Will had drawn a very detailed picture of a wizard casting a spell with his wand; Max had drawn a storm cloud with a lightning bolt coming out of it that looked surprisingly artistic; Dustin had made a goofy recreation of Yoda’s green head, which he was showing off proudly; and Mike, who was just putting the finishing touches on his drawing, had drawn El herself, wearing a blue shirt and sporting a nearly identical pixie cut.

Mike wasn’t exactly the best at drawing, but he had tried his best to replicate her small, narrow features. He wasn’t even sure why he was drawing her in the first place, she was simply the first thing that came to mind. No matter how hard he tried to come up with something else, the moment his markers reached the notebook cover, he just began to draw her face. It was almost as if he couldn’t think of anything else…even though there was _no_ way he would admit that to anyone else.

It seemed like El noticed who Mike was trying to draw. She looked at him, pointed at his drawing of her, and pointed at her questioningly. Without saying a word because he was worried his voice would crack out of embarrassment, Mike nodded, giving her a sheepish smile and more than likely blushing profusely. El smiled thoughtfully, blushing and giving him a grin that Mike desperately wanted to see more of in his life.

“So, what do you think?” Max asked, getting El’s attention. El smiled at all of them and flipped to a page in her notebook.

_I really like it all. Thank you so much!_

Mike was thankful that it had turned out alright. They had each done something completely different from one another, but it all seemed to mesh together nicely. “But El, don’t you want to draw something?” Will asked, and Mike noticed as well that she had not added anything to the notebook cover.

El grabbed the sticker set Will had gotten and held it up, indicating that she wanted to do that instead. She peeled off a few stickers of colored smiley faces and placed them next to all of their drawings, as well as taking a few flower stickers and putting them in the middle as well. After she had flattened them on the cover until they were smooth, she studied Dustin’s drawing more in depth and her brow furrowed in confusion. She went back to her page in the notebook and jotted something down.

_Dustin, why did you draw a green elf?_

Dustin read the question. “You mean Yoda? You’ve heard of Yoda, right?” El met his question with an even more confused look. “From Star Wars? Have you seen it?” El shook her head, causing Dustin to nearly explode in excitement. “Holy shit, you’ve never seen Star Wars! Guys, we _need_ to show El Star Wars!”

Confused but amused by Dustin’s excited outburst, El turned to Mike for an explanation. “Oh, um, Star Wars is a movie about space and aliens and stuff,” he said, trying to restrain his inner geek from joining Dustin on an hour-long summary of the franchise’s lore. “It’s pretty cool,” he added, trying to sound casual.

“Pretty cool?? It’s only one of the best and most masterful sci-fi trilogies in modern cinema!” Dustin shot back. “It’s got lightsabers, and droids, and Jedis…oh, and the Death Star! And it takes place on a bazillion different planets and you get to see different star systems—”

“Cool your jets, Dustin,” Max said, rolling her eyes fondly at the boy. “She can only take so much nerdiness at a time.”

“Oh, come on, Max, don’t pretend that you don’t like it either,” Dustin countered, to which the redheaded girl nonchalantly shrugged. Mike knew that she was secretly much more of a geek than she liked to let on. “El, you have to see the Star Wars movies. Mike, don’t you have them all on VHS? We could watch them this weekend!”

“But wait, Mike, weren’t you planning to do the campaign for this weekend?” Will reminded him. “El was going to do that, too!”

Max groaned. “Uggghh, this is too much. One geek thing at a time!” she complained.

Mike turned towards El, who was listening intently to the conversation. He wasn’t sure how much of it she understood, but she seemed excited by what was being said. He could tell why; something about the way Dustin described anything made it seem almost magical. Although he couldn’t help but feel surprised that a girl was taking joy in listening to something as nerdy as Star Wars…no matter how cool it was.

Eventually, they had all decided that they could show El Star Wars next weekend, but that they should keep their Dungeons and Dragons campaign scheduled for this Sunday and that their most urgent order of business should be to teach her how to play. So, the next couple hours were spent building El’s character and backstory in the game, she had decided that she wanted to be an elf with some healing abilities, and explaining the basic mechanics of the game. Dustin did much of the talking, while Will piped in every now and then when Dustin was speaking too quickly to explain things a bit slower so El could comprehend his ramblings. Mike spoke as well, although mainly he was thinking about how to incorporate El into the next campaign. It would be a push, and he may have to sacrifice his math homework for it, but he would do it for her.

Eventually, Mike’s mom came down to tell everyone to go home, and politely told El that Chief Hopper was just leaving to come pick her up. Max, Dustin, and Will said their goodbyes and went to the garage to grab their bikes, leaving El and Mike alone for the first time since earlier this morning.

“Uh, I hope you understood the majority of that,” Mike chuckled nervously, trying to break the ice, “Dustin can sometimes be a little energetic with this stuff.”

El gave him an amused smile, opening her notebook to write down a response:

_I think I got most of it. Do you think I’ll be able to play this weekend?_

“Y-yeah, definitely! That is, if you still want to…” Mike said, to which El enthusiastically nodded. He still couldn’t really get over it: a girl who wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons? He was definitely falling harder for her than he would like to admit. Maybe it was her willingness to engage with his friends’ nerdiness, or the twinkle in her eyes that he noticed when she got excited, or the variety of ways she expressed herself without words, like with a shrug, her hand gestures, her many different smiles that always left him floored…

El tapped him on the shoulder, breaking Mike from his reverie. He snapped back into focus and looked at her notebook, which she presented in front of him. She had written something else down:

_I’m sorry I made your friend Lucas go away. I wish he would have stayed._

Mike blinked a few times as the memories of Lucas’s outburst, and the anger he had for his friend, came back to him. “El, you had nothing to do with that, it wasn’t your fault,” Mike said, trying his best to console her. “I’m really sorry about what happened, Lucas was totally out of line. He just…” Mike sighed, his frustration fading away as El gave him a concerned look. “…I’ll talk to him tomorrow. He takes a while to trust people, but once he does, he can be a really good friend.”

El nodded, understanding. Pausing thoughtfully, she scribbled something down with her pen:

_Are we friends?_

Mike paused, taken aback by the question for a moment. But in his mind, he knew the answer to her question almost immediately. “Yeah, of course,” he said, smiling at her. El’s eyes widened and, in the blink of an eye, she lunged at him, nearly making him topple down on the couch in surprise as she brought him into a hug. Startled, it took Mike a second before he returned it, an even wider smile forming on his face. When El pulled away, Mike saw a warm smile on her face as she jotted something else down in her notebook.

_Thank you so much Mike ☺_

Mike’s heart skipped a beat at the second smiley face he had received from El. “You don’t need to thank me,” he said, trying and failing to keep the goofy grin off of his face. “I just, uh, I really like you, El.”

_I really like you too!_

Mike’s heart may well have nearly skipped two beats. Of course, he doubted she meant it like that. Even he hadn’t meant to say it to her like _that_ , even though he knew he probably, no, definitely, did. So, he told himself, he shouldn’t read too much into it because she had probably, almost certainly, meant nothing outside of the general “I like you as a friend.” After all, they had just established they were friends, right? So why was it that they were both moving somewhat closer to each other, leaning in until…

“El! Your ride is here!” Mike’s mother called from the top of the stairs to the basement. Mike and El jumped at the unexpected interruption. Mike blushed profusely as El gathered her things, putting her notebook back in her backpack.

“Um, I can walk you out,” he suggested. El smiled at him, nodding. The two of them walked up the steps to the front door, where El’s guardian was. Mike had never met Jim Hopper before, or if he did, he had no memory of him. He had moved to Indianapolis when he and his friends were very young, although he had heard a little bit of his reputation as the stern and intimidating Hawkins Chief of Police. And from his tall and muscular appearance and surly demeanor, he could tell that he earned it.

Chief Hopper nodded at Mike, looking at El. “Ready to go, kid?” he asked, getting into the station wagon. El nodded, looking back at Mike.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, El,” Mike said. El gave him a small wave to say goodbye and followed Hopper into the vehicle. Mike watched as she walked away, feeling enchanted by the silent girl. Without a word, she had swept him off his feet. And that wasn’t even mentioning…

…had they really almost kissed?

 

 

El looked back at the Wheeler household as her adoptive father sped away. Much like Mike, she couldn’t keep a silly smile off of her face.

“So, it was your first day at school and you’ve already got yourself a boyfriend?” Hopper asked her, amusement tinging his tone.

El blushed and rolled her eyes. She mustered up a bit of energy and gathered her thoughts. _It’s_ not _like that,_ she insisted, sending her thoughts to him telepathically.

Hopper chuckled. “If you say so,” he said. “You’re allowed to like people, you know. Just don’t tell him anything about your powers.”

 _I know,_ she responded, feeling a little woozy. Hopper reached into the cup holder and handed the small girl a tissue. Taking it, she cleaned off the small line of blood that had trickled from her nose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry that this took so long! Unfortunately I haven't had as many opportunities to work on this lately as I would have wanted, and this chapter ended up being a little longer than I was planning...but I hope you like it! Please leave comments to tell me what you think! :)


	4. Resentments and Resolutions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter! I'm so glad to see a lot of people enjoying this fic, I'm having a lot of fun writing it. If you do enjoy it, please leave a comment to tell me what you thought/how you think I can improve. It's going to take a few more chapters before we get into the plot-heavy parts of the story, so expect a good amount of fluff and friendship-building for the next few chapters!
> 
> Also, I'm starting school up again soon so updates may become more infrequent (uggh, I know, they're already kind of infrequent, but more infrequent). I haven't even had my first class yet and I already have a short essay due by the end of the week...but enough of my problems. I'll try to write as much as I can on this in the meantime!

The next morning, Mike woke up extra early. Lucas lived close to the school, meaning that he was usually one of the first people there in the morning. Mike, still determined to keep his word to El, needed to talk to him, so he resolved to try to beat his friend to school that morning so he could confront him about his outrageous behavior. Just thinking back to yesterday, and the way Lucas had treated her that entire day, made his blood boil. Mike just hoped that he would be able to keep his composure long enough so he wouldn’t strangle him. Even though he still wasn’t exactly sure what his relationship with El was at this point, he knew that no one should have the right to talk to her that way.

“Dude, wait up!” Mike was concentrating so hard on channeling his anger through the pedals on his bike that he barely heard his friend Dustin’s voice behind him, desperately trying to keep up. “Come on, Mike, you _know_ I can’t go that fast! Just slow down for a bit!” Noticing his friend behind him, Mike slowed his pace, allowing Dustin to catch up to him. The appearance of Dustin, who was one of the later people to show up at school, certainly took Mike off guard.

“Since when were you an early bird?” Mike commented as Dustin rode by his side, breathing heavily.

“I’m not…it’s just…Jesus Christ…” Dustin managed to say through wheezes, still recovering from chasing Mike. Rolling his eyes lightheartedly, Mike slowed until his bike reached a stop, getting off so Dustin could take a break. “ _Thank_ you,” Dustin said, catching his breath as the two of them walked with their bikes on the side of the road. “What I was trying to say in between me hyperventilating was that I knew you were going to be here early, so I felt I should be here too.”

Mike raised an eyebrow at Dustin. “How did you know I was going to go to school early?” he asked.

Dustin rolled his eyes, as if the answer was supposed to be obvious. “Because I know my friends, ding-dong,” he snapped. “I know that Lucas likes to get to school early, and I knew that after yesterday you would probably want to confront him, so I guessed that the perfect time to do that was if you got to school early to meet him.”

Mike let his mouth open silently in amazement for a moment at Dustin’s deduction skills. “Okay…but why did you decide to come too?” he asked finally, still confused to the second part of his explanation.

Dustin sighed in exasperation. “Because I don’t want either you or Lucas doing something stupid that you’ll regret later! You both can be emotionally irrational sometimes and one of you might do or say something that you won’t be able to take back later!”

Mike scoffed, a spark of anger flying through his veins. “You make it seem like I somehow share some of the blame here,” he argued. “This is all on Lucas. He was the one being a dick to El, I was only trying to stand up for her!”

“I never said otherwise, Wheeler,” Dustin responded calmly. They weren’t too far away from the school now, and Mike could see it in the distance. “Lucas was totally out of line, but he’s also stubborn. Just like you. Please, just let me mediate the situation so it doesn’t spiral out of control,” Dustin pleaded. “Believe it or not, I want Lucas to like El, too, so if you let me try to talk some sense into him then everyone will get what they want. Okay?”

Mike considered Dustin’s proposition for a minute as they came closer to the school. He knew that even if he told Dustin to let him handle it alone, it would probably end in him ignoring him and helping out anyway. In their own individual ways, each of them were stubborn; Dustin was very persistent when it came to quarrels with friends, always trying to diffuse a situation no matter what. And truth be told, he was surprisingly good at it.

“Okay, fine,” Mike said, giving in. He knew that it didn’t really matter what he said; Dustin would find a way to help one way or another. Regardless, Dustin beamed at him as they approached the bike rack. Both of them noticed Lucas’s bike already on the rack with a lock on it, meaning that they weren’t too far behind him. Putting their bikes next to his, they figured he must have just gone inside the school.

Sure enough, when they entered the hallway they saw Lucas Sinclair sulking by his locker. The two of them locked eyes as Mike stalked towards him, with Dustin following closely behind. There were a few other students around them, minding their own business; but as far as Mike was concerned, it was just him and Lucas.

“Mike,” Lucas said, nodding in acknowledgement. “Dustin.” There was an uncomfortable, confrontational silence between the boys. Mike knew, he _knew_ , that Lucas knew why he had come early. But for some reason, he didn’t want to give Mike the satisfaction of telling him that he did something wrong. “Okay, spit it out,” Lucas said finally, sighing. “You have something to say, don’t you?”

“The way you treated El was wrong,” Mike said, glaring at him but keeping his voice even. “She has it hard enough being the new kid _and_ not being able to talk. The least you could have done was try to be nice to her.”

“You’re overreacting,” Lucas said, scoffing. “All I did was ask her a couple questions, and everyone treated it like I hit her or something. You can befriend that weirdo all you want, but as far as I’m concerned I don’t trust her.”

“Don’t call her that!” Mike yelled, his anger flaring. He clenched his fist, taking one step towards Lucas.

“Okay, time-out, time-out!” Dustin said, stepping in between the two friends. He put his hands out to face each of them, preventing either boy from taking another step forward. Mike was still furious at Lucas, but he promised Dustin that he would let him mediate. “Look, I can tell that both of you have some pretty, erm, passionate views about El. Lucas, why don’t you trust her?”

“Because I only met her yesterday?” Lucas said, as if it should be obvious. But Dustin gave him a look that prodded Lucas to provide something further. “Okay, it’s more than that. She’s hiding something, I know it. She told us that her parents died when she was young, but also that Hopper only found her at a crime scene a couple years ago. That leaves a pretty long gap, and that’s not even mentioning why the hell she’s the only kid I’ve ever heard of that’s mute. Do you know how rare that is? How the hell does something like that happen?”

“You sound just like every other judgmental asshole in Hawkins that talks about her!” Mike spat, nearly boiling over. “Everyone’s _so_ eager to dig up dirt on El, just because she’s new and she’s different. So what if she’s hiding something? I don’t need to know every single time she took a fart in her life! If she wants to tell us her life story, she’ll tell us! It’s called respecting her fucking privacy, Lucas! It’s called being a decent human being, which too many people in this town don’t know shit about!”

“Well, excuse me if I’m suspicious of the girl that can’t even say a single word! Not even in sign language!” Lucas shot back angrily.

“Okay, okay, I think I know what’s going on here,” Dustin said, as if something was dawning on him and a calmness overtook his voice that took both Mike and Lucas off guard. Mike looked at him questioningly, and Dustin nearly laughed in response. “Isn’t it obvious? Lucas is being protective of you. He’s mothering you.”

Lucas’s expression turned from angry to confused as he wrinkled his nose at Dustin. “Um, _what?_ ” he demanded. Mike had a similar expression of bafflement on his face, staring at their friend as if he were a lunatic.

“Okay, guys, look, it’s pretty clear that neither of you simpletons realize what’s really going on between you two, so let me try to dumb it down into words,” Dustin began to explain. “So, first off, you two are best friends. Don’t deny it,” he added preemptively as Mike and Lucas both opened and closed their mouths to retort this before giving up. “You two have known each other longer than any of us, and you’ve always been really close. It’s important that we just establish that right off the bat. Also, you’re both really loyal, obviously to the rest of us, but you two look out for each other a lot. That’s just a fact. Another fact is that, Wheeler, you’ve been head-over-heels with El since you first laid eyes on her yesterday.”

Mike felt his face flush in embarrassment. “Dustin, it’s not—”

“Zip it!” Dustin snapped, pointing a finger warningly at him. Mike closed his mouth. “You know it, I know it, everyone with two eyes knows it. Hell, she probably knows it. But _he_ definitely knows it,” he said, looking at Lucas. “Now, I think it’s fair to say that El isn’t like most ordinary girls. Like you said, Mike, she’s different. So, what happens when your best friend, someone who will stick his neck out for you at every other opportunity, notices that you’re crushing on a girl who can’t speak and nobody knows where she came from? He gets suspicious, and he gets protective. He starts interrogating her. Don’t you get it, Mike? Lucas, in his own idiotic way and probably without fully realizing it himself, is making sure that El’s got what it takes to be a Wheeler girl.” Dustin turned towards Lucas, who was looking at him with a befuddled expression. “You may be able to fool yourself, Sinclair, but you can’t fool me. I know you too well, and you have maternal instincts built into your bones.”

“First off, I do _not_ have an inbuilt maternal instinct,” Lucas said, causing Dustin to roll his eyes. He turned to face Mike, this time with a gentler, more serious change in tone. “But…yeah, a lot of what he said was right, I guess. Of course I’m looking out for you, Mike. I’m looking out for everyone. I was just worried that El was a bad fit for our group…and for you,” he added, grudgingly.

Mike studied his friend’s face; it was a mix of emotions, and Mike couldn’t understand all of them. But he knew that Lucas was being honest with him, and perhaps he was even remorseful, too. Mere moments ago, Mike wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to forgive him for the things he had said about El. But seeing him in this vulnerable state trying to reach out to him made Mike want to try to fix things between them; according to Dustin, he was his best friend, after all.

“Lucas…I get it,” Mike said finally, sighing. “I understand what you were trying to do. But El is a good person, I just know it. She tries her hardest to be kind to all of us even with the limitations she has, and she’s been nothing but grateful to us for helping her find people who don’t judge her. Even if she doesn’t like me in that way, I know she’d still make a really good friend regardless.” As Mike watched Lucas’s face turn from stubborn to thoughtful and pondering, he could tell he was winning him over. “And I think you should trust my judgement on this stuff,” he added for good measure, “because without it I never would have become best friends with you.”

Lucas looked back at him, studying him back until he finally gave in, a wry grin spreading across his face. “Well, I’ll be damned if I don’t at least hear her out then,” he said, causing Mike to smile in relief. “If you think El is a good person, then I’ll trust your judgement. I’m sorry that I was an ass to her yesterday.”

“I forgive you,” Mike said. “But if you could repeat that apology to El herself when she gets here, I’d greatly appreciate it.”

“Deal.” Lucas walked towards him with his hand extended. Mike took it, shaking it and officially resolving the dispute. Dustin breathed a sigh of relief.

“So, if all it takes is my genius intellect to stop people from fighting, then maybe you guys should just stay silent like El and let me do all of the talking,” Dustin suggested, smiling proudly.

“Shut up, Dustin!” Mike and Lucas said almost instantaneously, causing them all to burst out laughing.

After a while, more people began to start filing into the school, including Will, who originally looked worried as he approached their lockers and was probably wondering if Mike and Lucas were still on bad terms. But once he saw them laughing and talking to each other, he became more at ease. Eventually, Mike saw her: she was walking in with Max, who was laughing and talking to her about…something. He couldn’t really make it out. But whatever it was, it must have been funny, because El was grinning and every now and then writing something down in her notebook in response that made Max laugh as well. Mike wondered if any of what they were talking about had to do with him, causing him to blush.

“Hello, boys,” Max said as the two of them approached.

“Hey, Max. Hi El,” Mike said, greeting them. Even though he didn’t intend to, his voice raised a couple pitches as he said hello to her. El greeted him in her own little way with a shy but warm smile that met her eyes.

“Ow! Quit it,” he heard Lucas mutter, as he looked next to him to see Dustin nudging his friend’s shoulder. “Um, hey, El…” he started to say awkwardly as he stepped forward to meet her. “I’m…really sorry about yesterday. I asked some really personal questions in ways I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings.” El looked surprised for a moment, but she gave him an understanding smile. Opening her notebook, she jotted down something on a blank page to show to him:

_It’s okay, I understand. Thank you for saying that. Can you do one thing for me?_

“Sure, what?” Lucas said after he finished reading. El handed him the dark blue pen she was carrying and closed the notebook, pointing to an empty portion of the cover that hadn’t been drawn on. Lucas still looked confused.

“She wants you to draw something,” Will explained as El nodded, insistent. “We all drew something on the cover yesterday except you, so she’s giving you the chance to do it now.” El handed the notebook to him and tapped at the blank spot on the notebook, motioning with a scribbling motion with her hands that she wanted him to draw.

“Oh, okay…” Lucas said, a little startled but taking the notebook and hovering the pen over its cover. “So, I can draw anything?” El nodded. Lucas tapped the pen on the cover, considering his options thoughtfully. “Well, Dustin, I can see from your uniquely crappy art skills that you drew Yoda…” Lucas commented as he drew, earning him a glare from Dustin, “…so I’ll draw Darth Vader. Here you go, El.” He said after drawing in the outline of Darth Vader’s helmet and his mask next to the Yoda, lightly shading it in as well. El seemed grateful but also confused at the same time, looking at Mike for explanation.

“It’s another character from Star Wars. The movie we were talking about,” Mike explained as Lucas looked at him, then back at El in shock.

“She’s never seen Star Wars?” Lucas asked, amazed. “Holy shit!” Mike rolled his eyes good-naturedly; it was almost the same reaction that Dustin had to this news yesterday.

“I know, right? Holy shit!” Dustin repeated, grinning excitedly. “We’re going to show her it the weekend after next…this weekend’s the campaign, and we’ve still got to do that first. But after that, we’re going to watch all of them back-to-back!”

“Awesome!” Lucas said excitedly. “That’s so cool!” Mike smiled. If there was one thing that brought them all together, it was the ability to thrust their nerdiness upon anyone who was willing.

“Ugh, screw this, I can’t handle you guys this early in the morning,” Max groaned, flicking her hair to the side melodramatically as she walked off to class.

“Hey, wait up!” Dustin said after letting his jaw drop in mock-offense at her comments. The two of them had English together as their first period class. As the school bell rang, the gang began to disperse, heading to their respective classes.

“If you ever want them to stop with that stuff, just let them know,” Mike said to El, the two of them walking slowly along the hallway. It turned out that the two of them had the same first period class for that day, so Mike was more than happy to walk with El there. “I know that they can be sometimes overbearing with Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons and stuff like that.”

El shrugged as she walked with him to their class, opening her notebook to write something down:

_It’s alright. If you guys think it’s cool, then I’ll probably think it’s cool too, right?_

Mike chuckled nervously, the fact that a girl was willing to entertain these types of things still befuddling his mind. Maybe it _was_ too good to be true. “Y-yeah…I mean, I think it’s cool, and they think it’s cool, but if you don’t like it then it’s okay, I mean, Max doesn’t like it and we’re, um, we’re still friends, so we can still be friends and everything even if you don’t—” Mike paused to look at El, who was looking at him with a very amused smile and an arched eyebrow. He blushed as he stopped his ramblings. “Sorry. I tend to ramble a lot,” Mike said, hoping not to embarrass himself further. Unfortunately, his mouth needed to take a little bit of a hint. “If you see me doing that again, feel free to just tap me a couple times and I’ll stop. Or snap your fingers or something, just something to get my attention so I don’t go on for too long, and it should be ok—”

Mike paused again as he heard El exhale multiple times through her nose as she covered her mouth with her hand. She was laughing at him. Mike gave her a lopsided smile. “Are you making fun of me, Ms. Hopper?” he asked jokingly, causing her to shake her head multiple times, taking her hand away from her face to reveal the brilliant smile under it as she tried (and failed) to maintain her composure. A lot of people laughed at Mike; that was nothing new. He had always been the butt of many people’s cruel jokes, and snickers as he walked down a hallway were not an uncommon occurrence. But something about the way El laughed at him made him want to embarrass himself more for her. Letting out a laugh himself, he felt himself get lost in her laughing eyes as she smiled fondly at him.

“Watch where you’re going, Wheeler.” The next thing Mike knew, he felt a force from behind shove him forward, causing him to trip and fall on the ground. Getting up, he spotted Troy from behind him with that shit-eating, sadistic smirk he had grown to loathe. “Oh, look who it is: The Mute. I would ask how you’re doing, but, you know, I doubt I’d get much of a response,” he chuckled to himself. El’s eyes quickly morphed into a glare as she rushed towards Mike.

“Go away, Troy,” Mike said as he struggled to get up, leaning on his small friend’s arm to prop himself up. “Don’t you usually pick on people with an audience? It’s just you, you’re only doing this to impress yourself.”

“What are you talking about? I’m just passing through,” Troy said, feigning innocence as he walked past them. “Although I’ve gotta say, Mute, I’m not surprised that you’ve gravitated towards Frogface and his group. They’re a whole freak show, all of them. I’m glad you’ve found your crowd,” he sneered, walking off as El kept staring daggers in his direction.

What happened next was weird. One moment, Troy was walking away from them smugly, the next _he_ was the one that was sprawling on the floor. Mike supposed that he tripped, but it had happened so quickly and out of nowhere that all he could comprehend was the before and after of the action. It was more like he just fell down on the ground. Troy stayed on the ground for a moment, almost as if he was in shock that he had tripped as well. But he was soon back up, this time walking away more quickly from them, obviously embarrassed by the incident.

“Mouthbreather,” Mike scoffed, watching him go but still confused at what just happened. “What do you think that was abo—” he turned towards El to see a small trickle of blood running from her nose. “Oh my god, El, your nose,” Mike said in concern, his attention completely shifting to her wellbeing. El held up a finger as if to say “I got it,” as she dug a tissue out of the front pocket of her backpack and dabbed the blood away, pressing it quickly up against her nose to wipe it all away. She grabbed her pen.

_It’s okay. I get a lot of nosebleeds, you shouldn’t worry._

“Oh, um, okay,” Mike said, standing up fully as the two of them walked to the nearest trashcan to throw away the bloody tissue. “We should probably head to class; the bell is going to ring any minute.”

El nodded, walking with him towards their classroom. She opened up her notebook before they went in and jotted something down.

_You know, he was right about one thing._

Mike looked at the paper and then back at her curiously. “You mean Troy? What did he get right?”

_I have found my crowd._

He read the sentence and grinned. The two of them walked into the classroom together, and Mike couldn’t help but keep grinning at the silent yet beautiful girl sitting next to him.


	5. Secrets and More Secrets

“Come on, Mike, you _have_ to come this year,” Dustin begged him. “Please, promise me that you’ll come.”

“I said I’ll think about it,” Mike repeated, annoyed as his three male friends swarmed him. It was already the end of the school week, and his friends were walking with him out of the hallway as the final bell of the day rang.

“Dude, you say ‘I’ll think about it’ every single year, and then a few weeks later you tell us at the last minute that you can’t make it to the Snowball,” Lucas said. “Besides, this year you actually have a reason to go.”

Lucas was right. Mike had never been one for large social gatherings, much rather preferring to spend an evening in his basement with his friends; or, as had happened the last few school winter dances, spending an evening in his basement alone. Whenever he went to any dance or other big event such as that, he always felt everyone’s eyes lie on him, making every casual social interaction burdensome and frightening. So, every year around the time the Snowball was happening, Mike gave a non-answer about whether he would go to the Snowball or not, and then his friends would go without him. They rarely brought dates, although once or twice Dustin or Lucas brought someone while Will preferred to go alone. But even still, Mike couldn’t help but feel isolated at dances. He figured that they just weren’t for him.

But this year, with the Snowball dance a little over two weeks away, he was suddenly reconsidering. And his friends could sense it. So they were pouncing on him, like hawks swooping down on a feeble sparrow.

“What do you mean, I have a reason to go?” Mike asked.

“Don’t play dumb, Mike, you know he’s talking about El,” Will interjected. “It’s not exactly a secret that you like her anymore. You should ask her to the dance!”

“Why, so I can trip over my own feet in front of her and she can laugh at me?” Mike scoffed.

“No, so you can have fun! Come on, you can’t say the thought hasn’t at least crossed your mind,” Will said, causing Mike to look at him with irritation. Dustin was good at reading people’s thoughts, but Will was an expert at reading behind people’s emotions. For some reason, it just came very naturally for him.

“Okay, fine! I’ve been _thinking_ about it,” Mike admitted, causing Dustin and Lucas to let out ooh’s. “And I’m still _thinking_ about it. So I’d appreciate it if you guys would leave me alone until I actually decide whether or not to ask El to go with me to the Snowball!”

After a moment of silence while they stood outside the doors of the school, Will suddenly grinned, stuffing a piece of paper into Mike’s hand. It had jagged edges on the side and looked like it had been torn out of a notebook or something. Written on the piece of paper with black pen was something that made Mike’s face turn white:

_What’s the Snowball?_

He recognized the handwriting well, and it certainly wasn’t Will’s. Mike whipped around, seeing El standing behind him with an amused expression.

“Oh, h-hey El,” Mike said nervously. “I, uh, I didn’t see you there.” El shrugged and reached her finger towards the paper, tapping it gently. She was staring at him curiously, wanting an answer. “Oh, yeah, the Snowball…” Mike said, feeling tongue-tied all of the sudden. “It’s…it’s like a dance, that a lot of people go to…you know, to have fun…” This was going well, Mike thought to himself. Yep, this was definitely how he wanted to ask El to go to the Snowball with him. “And…well, you don’t have to, but…I was wondering if you wanted to go?” Mike asked tentatively, shuffling his feet as he kept his eyes on her. “To the Snowball. With…um, with me,” he said. He didn’t dare look at his friends around him; he could only imagine how they were reacting to the train wreck unfurling as he spoke.

El looked at him, pausing to consider as Mike looked at her for an answer. Every moment for him was agony. Eventually, El took the piece of paper from his hands and wrote something down on it for him.

_No._

“W-w-what?” Mike said, alarm bells sounding off in his head as he mentally freaked out. All of his systems were failing him. His legs began to wobble a little bit. It was over. Things would never be the same between him and El again. “Um…i-i-it’s okay, I’m sorry for…” he paused, looking at El. She appeared to be suppressing a wide grin. “…why are you smiling?” El grabbed the paper back and wrote something down on the next line.

_I’m so sorry, Max told me that you would ask me to the Snowball and she wanted me to pretend to say no at first because she thought your reaction would be funny._

Mike’s jaw dropped as he read it as the other boys peered over his shoulder, reading the note and bursting out into laughter. “Holy shit, that’s amazing!” Dustin chortled as Mike’s face turned red in embarrassment. Lucas was laughing too and even Will, the supposedly emotionally empathetic one, let out a few chuckles. Still caught off guard from the entire situation, Mike blushed sheepishly as his friends laughed at him.

“So…is that a yes, then? To the Snowball?” Mike prompted awkwardly, still not entirely sure what her answer was. El grinned at him, nodding as she wrote something else down on the paper.

_Of course I want to go to the Snowball with you!!!_

Mike’s heart rose back into his chest as he looked at El. “For real?” he confirmed. She nodded enthusiastically, displaying a wide grin. Mike sighed in relief and gave her a big smile in return, but having just been mortified he tried to keep his cool. “Cool. Great. Although, anymore listening to what Max says and your invitation might be revoked,” he joked, causing El to roll her eyes and punch him lightly on the shoulder.

“Hey, wait up!” Mike heard Max running outside to meet them from the school. She was met by three out of the four boys still laughing, one girl smiling amusedly, and one out of the four boys glaring at her. “What, did I miss something?” Max looked bewildered for a moment until she saw El trying to cover a wide grin with her hand, and dawning overcame her. “El! He asked you already?? You were supposed to wait for me to do it! I wanted to see his reaction!”

“Don’t talk to me,” Mike told her in mock-anger as he turned his back to her.

“Trust me, it was totally worth it. He looked like he was about spontaneously combust,” Dustin told her, still chortling. Max started laughing as well as Mike sheepishly looked away from them. He felt a delicate hand touch his shoulder, and looked next to him to see El smiling at him reassuringly. Mike’s embarrassment and anxiety began to fade away in what felt like a heartbeat.

 _Were you really worried that I was going to actually say no?_ El wrote to him after they had all disbanded. Everyone else was already on their way home; their Dungeons and Dragons game wasn’t until Sunday night and they all decided to give Mike some space to put any final touches on the campaign for the next few days. Except for El, who had asked him earlier if he could come back to his house with him because Hopper was working late. For obvious reasons, Mike accepted.

Blushing, Mike shrugged as he walked over to the bike rack. “I dunno…maybe?” he said uncertainly. “I’ve never really asked someone before…and we only really met at the beginning of the week…I mean, I was originally going to ask you sometime next week, but obviously I didn’t realize you were walking behind us and then all of that happened and—”

El interrupted Mike’s ramblings by giving him a tight hug, wrapping around him with her small, fragile arms. Startled, it took Mike a moment to hug back, although it was certainly a good way to shut him up and take his breath away. When she pulled away, El went right back to her notebook and wrote something down.

_You’re cute when you get flustered._

Mike nearly did a spit take as he read the sentence over again. Dustin was wrong: _this_ was the moment where he was going to spontaneously combust. “Ummmm…uuhhhh…t-thanks?” he managed to say.

_I was always going to say yes, Mike. I’m sorry I worried you so much._

Regaining some of his basic motor skills, Mike looked at the small girl and smiled. “T-thanks. And it’s okay, you don’t have to apologize. You guys are probably right anyway, I probably looked really funny while doing it,” he added, giving her a lopsided smile. Agreeing with him, El gave him another one of those silent giggles that Mike had ended up living for over the past few days. Her grin would widen, her hand would rush to her face to try to keep her mouth closed, and she’d exhale sharply through her nose multiple times. Even if Mike had been mad at her, which he wasn’t, he knew he wouldn’t have been able to stay made at her for long.

Mike took his bike off the rack and sat on the front seat. “Ready to go, El?” he asked. Nodding, El sat on the edge of his bike and wrapped her arms around his waist. The two of them spent the bike ride to the Wheeler home in comfortable silence.

 

After being greeted by an enthusiastic Mrs. Wheeler, Mike and El went downstairs to their usual place: the basement. However, this would be the first time they would be alone together; whenever El stayed at Mike’s house after school that week, there had always been the rest of the group there with them. Now, it was just the two of them: Mike and the mute girl with whom he was infatuated.

Mike was, for obvious reasons, a little nervous. And when he got nervous, he tended to talk a lot to make up for his nervousness. But with El, that usually involved her having to write something down in response, which could sometimes become tedious after a while, and that made Mike even more…nervous. It was a positive feedback loop of nervous anxiety, and the acknowledgement of that did little to quell his nervousness.

El didn’t seem to share his nervousness. In fact, much to his relief, she seemed quite comfortable as she sat down on the couch, looking around the basement and then smiling back at him.

“Sorry about my mom, she can sometimes be a little too energetic,” he blurted out, feeling the need to say something. “If she’s ever too much for you, just let me know.” El nodded, smiling at him while she took her notebook back from out of her bag.

_I like your mom. She’s nice. I would love to have a mother like her._

Mike’s brain kicked itself for forgetting: El’s parents died when she was young. What right did he have to complain about his mother to a girl who never had one of her own? “Yeah, she’s pretty alright,” Mike managed to say. _Pretty alright? That’s the best you have to say, Wheeler?_ He chided himself. “Um, is Chief Hopper…nice?” he asked, thinking of any other topic possible.

El nodded and wrote something down. _He saved my life. Without him I wouldn’t be here right now._

Mike read the sentence written in blue ink and looked back up at El. “You said he found you on a crime scene,” Mike said slowly, his curiosity getting the better of him. “What…what happened?”

El looked troubled for a moment, and Mike suddenly feared that he had asked something he shouldn’t have. “It’s okay, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” Mike tried to reassure her, reaching over to grab her hand, squeezing it. El looked up at him and gave him a small, thankful smile. She held up her index finger with her other hand, indicating that she needed a minute, and turned over the page in her notebook.

El then reached over to the table next to them and grabbed some of the colored pencils scattered around it. Mike was confused for a moment, but then realized that she was drawing a picture. Obviously, what happened was too complicated for her to just write down. She had drawn three stick figures, two larger ones and one small one. One of the big stick figures had long, brown hair, the other tall one had short, grey curls, and the short one had brown hair. As she was drawing, she kept on looking back up at Mike, hoping he would understand.

“Is that…you and your parents?” he asked, understanding dawning on him. El nodded, labelling the larger two figures as _Mama_ and _Papa._ She pointed towards the smaller figure and then at herself, making it clear for him. El then took the red colored pencil in her hand. She started coloring in a red, messy circle underneath the mother figure. She drew red lines coming from that stick figure’s face. Mike knew what it was almost immediately, but he was hoping that he was wrong.

“Blood.” El looked up at him with sad eyes and nodded. She took her colored pencil to the other side of the page and started drawing another stick figure, and by the height and hair Mike assumed it was her again. She drew grey lines on either side of her, and other taller stick figures outside of the line. One of them had grey squiggles on his head like her Papa. She could tell that he didn’t really get it, so she drew a small rectangle next to her in between the lines and a small square on top of that rectangle. She put her hands below her head to mime that it was a bed.

“That…that was your room?” he asked, and El nodded. He looked over at the other stick figures outside of the walls of the room. “And…your Papa and those people kept you in there?” She nodded again. “Was it…was it a prison, or something?” he asked. El considered what he had said for a moment before shaking her head, writing down one word above the picture:

_Worse._

Mike felt shivers down his spine. Why would someone do this to anyone? To her especially? El hadn’t done anything to deserve being trapped in a room being watched by whoever these people were, he was sure of it. “What were they doing? Just watching you?” El seemed to be uncomfortable by the question, but she nodded and wrote something down.

_Sometimes they had me do other things._

“What other things?” Mike asked, his voice cracking. El looked away from him, and he saw her hands shaking. “El…” Mike didn’t know what to say, but he needed to comfort her. He wrapped his arms around the small girl, trying to console El as she clung onto him for comfort, her entire body shaking. “It’s okay…you’re okay…” El’s shaking eventually subsided, and she pulled away to wipe some tears from her face. Mike looked at her worriedly. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want…just what you’re most comfortable with,” he said to her, placing his hand gently on top of hers. She smiled gratefully at him, and as she stared at him Mike could see the strains of pain and worry subsiding somewhat from her face.

Seeming to have calmed down a bit, she flipped the page over. Taking the grey colored pencil again, she started drawing the walls of the room, but this time there was a large, mangled gap in one of the walls. Her stick figure was running away from it as the other, taller stick figures were running in every direction around her, panicked. She drew a long box with red and blue lights on the top, with a stick figure in the window that had brown markings on the bottom of his face, almost as if it were a goatee. This was her escape, Mike realized. This was how Hopper found her.

“How long did they…those people and your Papa…keep you there?” Mike asked. El shrugged, taking one of the pencils and simply writing down under the picture:

_Too long._

Mike gulped, feeling chills run down his spine. “I still don’t understand…why would they do something like that? What’s the point, keeping you locked in a room for who knows how long after your mother died? Did they just enjoy being cruel to other people?” Mike said. The more he questioned these animals’ motives the angrier he became. El seemed to notice his anger flare up, as she quickly reached over to grab his hand, calming him a little bit. Using her other hand, she wrote down another message for him.

_They had their reasons…Mike, it’s really important that you don’t tell anyone else about this._

Mike’s face softened, looking into El’s eyes. There was a bit of warmth there, but also a lot of fear. “I promise, it’s just between you and me,” Mike said almost automatically, squeezing her hand. “But…why is it important that no one else knows?”

El shuddered, and the fear in her eyes began to only grow. Her free hand began to shake as she wrote down on the paper in slow, messy handwriting:

_Those people are still out there_

Mike was about to respond when there was a knock on the back door, making them both jump. Both El and Mike remained sat in their seats, frozen. Mike cautiously got up, silently motioning with his hand that El should stay put.

There was another knock on the door, this time more persistent. “Mike? Are you in there?” said a young, female voice from outside. It was Max. “Look, I’m sorry I pulled that prank on you earlier, but can I please come in?”

Mike sighed, his body relaxing as he walked over to the door and opened it. “Max, what is…” he trailed off when he saw her in the doorway. The usually confident redhead he had only seen hours ago was now standing before him pitifully with a black eye. “Max!” he yelped, surprised. She quickly pushed past him and went into the room. Her expression was a mix of defensiveness and fear as she looked at both El and Mike silently.

“Um…” she started to say after a long silence, “look, if now isn’t a good time then I can just…” she trailed off. Mike stared at her blankly as El shook her head, pointing underneath her own eye questioningly to very clearly ask about her black eye. Max sighed. “El…it’s nothing important, okay?”

“Nothing important?” Mike said incredulously. “Max, we only saw you a couple hours ago and you didn’t have _that!_ Did you get into a fight with Troy or something?”

“Come on, Troy doesn’t have the balls to hit a girl,” Max scoffed, although with a significant lack of the snark she would have usually had. She seemed more uncomfortable than anything, and compared to her usual emotionally guarded demeanor, she seemed…vulnerable.

“Then how did you—”

“It was Billy, okay?!” Max snapped at Mike, flashing angry eyes at him. “He and mom were both home and they were drunk. They were yelling at me and I made the stupid mistake to not ignore them and yell back, so he hit me. I ran away because I was a coward and now I’m too afraid to go back…it’s not safe.”

Mike stared at her in shock as he noticed her expression change, tears springing up in her eyes. He had heard a bit about Max’s older brother, Billy, but didn’t know much about him other than the fact that he had a bit of bad streak. He also knew that her family didn’t have the best reputation in all of Hawkins; like Will’s household, her father was a deadbeat who left the family a while ago. But unlike the Byers boy, Max didn’t have a gentle, caring mother or a passionate, hardworking older brother. It was almost as if Max’s family was like a backwards, upside-down version of Will’s family. But even Mike wouldn’t have thought that someone with the reputation of Billy would punch his own sister.

“Stop looking at me like that.” Max said defensively. “Both of you.” Mike glanced over at El, who had stood up and was looking at the redhead with concern. Mike supposed he was looking at her similarly, too.

“Sorry, Max, it’s just…we’re worried about you, is all,” Mike said as El nodded in agreement. “You’re safe here. I can talk to my mom and she’ll—”

“No!” Max interrupted sharply, jumping back to attention. “No. You can’t tell any adults about this. Or anyone else. Please, can you please just keep this a secret?” She begged him.

El reached out and put a comforting hand on her shoulder, squeezing it in an effort to try to calm her down. “Max…let’s just sit down, okay?” Mike said cautiously, not wanting to startle her again. Slowly, she nodded and followed them back to the couch. El gave her a half-hug as she sat dawn, causing Max to give her a reluctant smile. Then she turned to Mike.

“I…have a stupid request,” she admitted, forcing every word out of her mouth. “I don’t want to go back there…not until tomorrow when they’re hungover, at least. Can I just stay down here for the night? I promise I won’t bother you or anything, you don’t have to do anything for me and I can leave in the morning.”

Mike sighed. “Max, it’s not stupid at all. Of course you can stay here as long as you need to…and I promise not to tell my parents,” he reassured her. He didn’t know the full picture, but he knew that at the very least he didn’t want his friend going back home if she was in danger. He also wasn’t sure how long he could hide a teenage girl in his basement without his parents noticing, but he would try his best.

“Thanks, Mike,” Max said, giving him a small, thankful smile. She had seemed to calm down a little bit. Giving him and El a sly look, she added, “sorry for crashing your guys’ date.”

Both Mike and El turned red in the face. “I-it’s not…it’s…” Mike sputtered as El looked over at him, putting a hand to her mouth to cover an amused smile. Groaning, he covered his face in his hands in embarrassment as Max laughed at him. Her joyous expression died a little bit as she winced in light pain, tracing a finger over her black eye. When Mike looked back at it, he noticed that it did look pretty purple. He grimaced. Billy certainly had quite a swing to him.

“Do you have, like, a bag of ice or something?” Max asked awkwardly. “This thing hurts like a bitch.”

“We probably have something in the freezer,” Mike said, standing up to go to the stairs. “I’ll be right back.” Max muttered a ‘thanks’ as he went up. Thankfully his mother was in the other room, meaning that he could take things down to the kitchen without her noticing. Sure enough, there was a bag of frozen peas, which would hopefully do something for her eye. He paused for a moment before closing the freezer drawer. Usually whenever any of his friends stayed overnight Mrs. Wheeler would cook dinner for them, but since Max was adamant that no adults know that she was staying here, she wouldn’t have anything to eat. Mike was no chef, but he figured that he should at least bring her something; so, grabbing the nearest box of food he could find, he closed the freezer and went back downstairs.

“Here,” Mike said, handing her the frozen bag of peas and placing the box on the table. “Those are for whenever you’re hungry.”

“Thanks,” Max said gratefully, placing the bag over her face as she looked at the box. “‘Chocolate-Chip Eggo’s’? You got me frozen waffles?” she asked, confused.

Mike shrugged, sitting back down. “If you’re going to be staying here, then you should at least be able to eat something. I didn’t have time to actually toast them, so you’re going to have to let them defrost a little bit. But who doesn’t like Eggo’s?”

“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting anything…I’ve gone enough nights hungry that I know how to deal. But since you’re offering I’ll take them,” Max said, smirking. “I’ve honestly never had Eggo’s, so I can’t judge.” She shrugged, grabbing one of the frozen waffles from the box and studying it carefully. They seemed to catch El’s attention as well.

“El, have you ever had Eggo’s before?” Mike asked, noticing her expression. El shook her head. “Holy crap, really? They’re so good!” he raved, reaching for the box to take out a waffle to hand to her. “That’s it, you’re _both_ having waffles. You can thank me later.”

Max snorted. “Come on, Wheeler, I doubt they’re _that_ good,” she said, using her hands to warm her waffle up manually.

But once both of them had tried it, Mike had proven her wrong. Max, of course, wouldn’t give Mike the pleasure of saying he was right, but he could tell that she did like it a lot. El, meanwhile, had quickly gobbled her Eggo up as soon as it had defrosted enough, and the wide-eyed look of wonder in her eyes gave it all away. The next hour and a half was spent by Mike, Max, and El warming up chocolate-chip waffles with their hands and eating them, laughing, talking, and writing while doing so. Mike was even able to sneak in another box from the freezer upstairs so they had enough. He knew that neither Max and El were completely okay in their own separate ways, and even in his own way Mike wasn’t entirely okay either; but in that moment, as the trio ate partially-frozen waffles and giggled among each other, things were good. Not great, and far from perfect, but good.

Eventually, Mike’s mother called him from the top of the stairs, saying that Hopper was here to pick El up. With a sigh, Mike led El up the stairs and to the door, as usual.

 _Thanks for listening to me earlier,_ El wrote to him as they made their way outside. _I don’t get to share things like that often._

Mike shrugged as he walked her outside. Hopper’s station wagon was once again parked in the driveway. “I was the one who asked. But thank you for sharing it with me…I know it was hard. It means a lot,” he said. “And don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone else, I promise.”

El lifted her pen up as if she was going to write something else, but she decided against it and closed the notebook, tucking the pen over the cover. Lunging at Mike, she gave him a tight hug. Her hugs always startled Mike no matter when they happened, and they always contained a surprising amount of force for such a small girl, but he was always grateful for them. As El pulled away, she started walking to the car, looking back to give him a small wave. Mike limply waved back as El hopped into the passenger’s seat and the police car drove off.

It was always the little actions El did that left him absolutely breathless.

“Mike, dinner’s ready,” his mother told him as he went inside, closing the door behind him. His entire family was swarming the kitchen.

“Okay, mom,” Mike said, but suddenly he remembered the girl he had left behind in the basement. “Um, actually, do you mind if I just get a few things straightened out downstairs? I’ll only be a minute,” he told her. To be fair, it wasn’t a lie: he just wasn’t telling the whole truth.

His mother didn’t seem to catch on, though. “Okay, just be up here soon,” she said, turning back towards his dad and older sister. Mike quickly opened the basement door again and closed it, walking down the stairs.

Max’s head whipped around to meet him, her long, red hair flipping in his direction. “It’s just me,” he said, and she relaxed. Walking over to the basement closet, he grabbed a few various blankets and a pillow and threw them onto the couch. “Here,” he said. “You can pick whichever one’s your favorite. I need to go upstairs for dinner and it will be weird if my mom hears me talking if I go back downstairs. But I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”

Max nodded, feeling the blankets in her hand. “Thanks, Wheeler. I owe you one.”

Mike sighed. “You don’t owe me anything,” he said as he walked towards the stairway. He paused before he went up the stairs, looking over at her. “Max…you’re going to be okay, right?”

Max rolled her eyes, turning away from him so only her back was facing him. “Stop worrying about me, Wheeler. One of our friends is black and another has a speech impediment in a backwards, judgmental town in the Middle of Nowhere, USA. I’m far from being the worst off out of all us.”

Mike paused. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Well, then ask better questions,” she shot back, her shoulders tensing up. There was a tense, awkward silence between the two of them until Max’s body slumped. She sighed, looking at him with tired eyes. “I’m sorry, Mike…it hasn’t been the best day. Just…go up to your family, okay? I’ll see you tomorrow.” She put the bag of peas back up to her eye and turned away from him again.

Looking at Max worriedly one last time, Mike walked up the steps and sat back down for dinner in a glum mood.

 

“Tired?” Hopper asked gruffly as he drove El back to his place. Not having the energy to communicate telepathically, she simply nodded and rested her head against the window.

Today had been exhausting. As much as El loved spending time with Mike, their friendship was developing…fast. She wasn’t sure exactly what that feeling was that she felt for him, but whatever Hopper had told her about “boyfriends” and “girlfriends” struck a chord with her whenever she thought about him. Maybe going to the Snowball is what boyfriends and girlfriends did? El still wasn’t exactly sure. Hopper had also mentioned that those sorts of relationships were “older people problems.”

But whatever was developing between them, Hopper would certainly disapprove of her sharing so much about herself with Mike. She wasn’t sure what compelled her to do it; it was more than a little risky, and would almost certainly bring up more questions in the future. But, surprisingly, it didn’t worry her. It was difficult at first, but El liked it that Mike knew a little bit about her past. He didn’t judge her or treat her any differently.

She definitely didn’t want to tell him everything. If he knew what she could do, that lack of judgement would evaporate immediately, and it would put everyone, Mike included, in danger. But maybe El could tell him a few little things, here and there. Even if Hopper wouldn’t be okay with it, El maybe could keep it a secret from him. It made her feel nice to know that people like Mike accepted her, past and present.

“You’re thinking about something,” Hopper commented, breaking her train of thought. He was looking at her through the corner of his eye curiously. “You always have that look when you’re thinking.” El looked over at her guardian, mustering up a little bit of extra energy to come up with a thought to push his way.

 _Can we buy some Eggo’s at the store?_ She asked him telepathically.

Hopper raised an eyebrow, surprised at the question. Letting out a chuckle, he made a U-turn, heading away from the direction of their little home and towards the supermarket. Hopper couldn’t keep the small smile off his face as El grabbed a tissue grinned at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter, at last! I hope you all enjoy, I'm really glad that people are liking this.
> 
> Sorry for the long wait. School has started up for me again, and added with some emotional issues I've been dealing with lately I haven't had a lot of motivation to write recently. I'll try to update this story on a more regular basis, but I can't guarantee anything. Just know that I haven't forgotten about this story!
> 
> Anyway, this chapter is mainly more character development, but I promise big things will happen soon and then they'll happen quickly! For now, enjoy the slow burn. 
> 
> Please leave comments and kudos if you enjoyed, they make me happy. Thanks for reading! :)


	6. Dungeons and Dragons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New Chapter! More notes at the bottom, but please note that I have very little knowledge of D&D so please disregard any mistakes I make regarding the game. Thank you! :)

Dustin was hunched over the table, staring intently at Mike with wide eyes. Lucas seemed to be more than a little stressed out, as he leaned back in his chair and ran his fingers through his short, black hair. Will was nervous, too, glancing between his friends as he looked between Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and El. Even El was clutching her notebook, looking at Mike anxiously. Mike, smiling deviously, held the Dungeons and Dragons rulebook in front of him.

“It’s getting dark outside, and you see a dark cave by the side of the mountain…” Mike told them, narrating the campaign for them.

“Go in the cave!” Dustin said almost immediately.

“Are you crazy, dude? There’s no way we can know what’s in that cave! It’s probably something ridiculously overpowered and we’ll die instantly!” Lucas said, looking at him as if he were out of his mind.

“So, what, you want to set camp outside and risk running into that chimera again? At _night?_ ” Dustin cried. “We’ll all be screwed if that happens!”

“I dunno…” Will said, biting his lip as he turned towards El. “What do you think?”

El paused, pursing her lips as she thought briefly about the two options. She had caught onto the complex game quickly, much to Mike’s surprise, and seemed to be enjoying herself despite not being able to shout and scream like the other boys. Throughout the campaign, she had been acting as something of a mediator between Lucas and Dustin, who had fierce disagreements with one another over which reckless path to take. The past few times she had sided with the slightly-more-cautious Lucas, but this time seemed to be different as she made up her mind. An amused smile playing at her lips, she pointed at Dustin, declaring the victor.

“Yes! Into the cave we go!” Dustin whooped as Lucas scowled at him. Mike grinned: Lucas was right. They had fallen right into his trap.

“You walk into the small cave…it’s dark…you can’t see anything in front of you…but that isn’t your biggest worry right now,” Mike said ominously, building the tension in the room. “You hear scrapes against the cave floor behind you…someone…or something…followed behind you.” Will’s breath hitched as Mike’s lips twitched upwards, enjoying teasing his friends with what was to come. “It's been following you this whole time. You still can’t see it, but you can hear it…moaning…”

“Dustin, you have a lantern, right?” Will asked. He nodded in response.

“I’ll use the lantern,” Dustin said, eyeing Mike wearily. “Although I swear to god if it’s the Thessalhydra again…”

“You shine the light, and standing before you blocking your only exit is the Demogorgon!” Mike screamed, slamming the figure on the table dramatically as the entire table erupted into gasps and groans.

“Shit, shit, shit! We’re so fucked!” Dustin whined, leaning back in his chair.

“See, El? This is what you get for listening to Dustin!” Lucas said in a playfully accusing tone towards the silent girl. El hid her smile as she shot the boy sitting across from her an annoyed glare. Picking up her pen, she scribbled quickly:

_How bad is it?_

“Very bad. Like, really bad. He’s the prince of demons!” Dustin said hopelessly, and Lucas nodded in agreement. El grimaced, nervously tapping the bottom of her pen on her notebook as the two boys bickered with each other.

“I could try to use fireball!” Will suggested. The whole table turned towards him: Will the Wise, the sage wizard who had otherworldly abilities beyond anyone's imagination and was also the party’s sole experienced magic user.

“You’ll need to roll a seven to do it,” Lucas reminded him. “It’s risky.”

“What other choice do we have?” Will shot back, nervously wringing his hands.

“You could always run,” came a bored, female voice from the couch. Everyone’s heads turned around to look at Max, who had been reading one of the books lying around the basement and tuning in and out of the game as it progressed. She kept her eyes on the pages, not looking over at the campaign table. “Why bother fighting? That’s what I’d do, at least.”

Outside of El, everyone else still didn’t know that Max had been secretly staying in the Wheeler basement. It was Sunday night, and Mike had miraculously been able to keep her residence a secret even from his own parents. Despite his desperate pleas to tell his mother or anyone else about her situation in order to get her any sort of help, she had been stubborn in making him keep it hidden. Although, thankfully, Mike’s mom ordered pizza on Sunday night, allowing him to very easily take a few pieces down to her, and both mornings she had stayed there over the weekend he woke up early to properly toast Eggo waffles for her as opposed to eating them frozen.

The bruise under her eye had gotten a little better, but Sunday morning it was still visible. Max had been tempted to leave before everyone came for Dungeons and Dragons, but after some insistence from Mike she had allowed him to borrow some makeup from his sister’s room and try to cover it up. Even though Mike had no experience with makeup, he had tried his best to make it seem as natural as possible. It certainly had covered the bruise, but the uncommon addition of makeup to her face did not escape the attention of one person: Dustin.

“Are you wearing makeup?” he had asked, scrunching his nose when he first saw her lying down on the couch in the basement. Max had immediately tried to turn her face away.

“No,” she had said defensively, before pausing after seeing Dustin’s skeptical expression. “Okay, maybe a little…but it doesn’t matter, alright? I’m just trying it out.” To Mike and probably Max’s relief as well, Dustin hadn’t pressed her further, although he did look at her with strangely as the other boys and El sat around the table in the basement for the game.

Now, Dustin was looking at her strangely yet again. Max was often present during their games, but usually didn’t comment during it because she never participated, and when she did it was never this bleak. Mike was able to catch his expression of concern, and El glanced nervously at Mike.

“No, we’ve got to try,” Dustin said finally after a contemplative silence, keeping his eyes on Max. “The Demogorgon’s blocking the exit anyway. We can’t run.” Max shrugged as he turned towards Will. “Use the fireball.”

Glancing nervously at Lucas, who silently nodded his consent, Will nervously grabbed the die, shaking it in his hands as he let out an equally-shaky breath, and rolled it onto the table. Dustin, Lucas, and El leaned in, following the die as it landed on one of its many sides.

“It’s an eleven!” Lucas proclaimed extatically, and the entire table erupted into cheers as El grinned widely. Mike smiled, poking his head out from behind the rulebook.

“Will the Wise casts a fireball spell, stunning the Demogorgon and leaving it vulnerable!” Mike announced, causing the entire table to become giddy in excitement as Dustin, Lucas, Will, and El traded attacks on the beast, surprisingly landing successful blows against it until it was severely weakened. El was the last one to deal the fatal hit, striking the Demogorgon with her bow.

“Staggering, the Demogorgon crumbles to the ground, claws stretched out towards you…and with one last wheeze, he falls!” Mike narrated enthusiastically as the table cheered and El grinned at him. The energy from his friends was euphoric, but he couldn’t help but glance at the redhead lying on the couch, her expression troubled.

Shortly after the victory, the game ended as Mike’s mother came down to tell everyone to leave due to it being a school night. El stayed for a little longer as she needed to wait for Hopper to come get her as the rest of the boys left. Max pretended to leave, taking her bike and riding it out with everyone else, but eventually heading back and knocking on the basement door ten minutes later.

“Dustin knows,” she stated matter-of-factly as Mike let her in again. She was pacing around the room nervously. “He was looking at me funny when he left, more than the others.”

Mike and El exchanged nervous glances. “You think Dustin knows you’re sleeping here just because he gave you a funny look?” he asked slowly, trying to follow her train of thought.

“No, but he knows something is up,” Max insisted, running her hands through her long, red hair. “He noticed the makeup and he knows I never wear it! He has to know that I’m trying to cover up the bruise.”

“Dustin notices a lot, but I think that’s a little bit of a stretch,” Mike said as El wrote something in her notebook, showing it to Max.

_Why do you not want Dustin to know?_

Max paused as she read the sentence over. “It…it doesn’t matter,” Max stuttered out, her face flushing ever so slightly. It was enough for Mike to catch it, but before he could say something she quickly interrupted him. “I don’t need him or anyone else pitying me. He can’t know, and no one else can know either.”

“So why did you come to me, if you didn’t want anyone else to know?” Mike asked skeptically. “Why are we allowed to know but Dustin isn’t?”

“Because _you_ have the big basement that’s easy for me to hide in, and _she_ was here when I came!” Max said defensively, pointing at both Mike and El. “Plus, Dustin, Lucas, or Will all would have just pitied me and told their parents by now, who would also do nothing but pity me. I knew you would be the least likely to tell anyone because you didn’t want me to become part of the group in the first place and you give the least amount of shits about me!”

Startled at the outburst, Mike shrunk back a little bit as his expression changed. He didn’t want to show it, but he was hurt by what Max said. She had been one of the latecomers to the group, being the new kid in town from California. Having no friends, Dustin and Lucas immediately tried to fight for her affection and win her a place in the group. While Will seemed to accept her pretty quickly, Mike had always been a holdout. He had warmed up to the spunky redhead after a while, but the wounds of rejecting her at first were still somewhat fresh for the both of them.

But to say that he didn’t give a shit? To imply that he didn’t care about her well-being? That cut deep.

Looking over at her now, he could tell that she regretted saying it. “I…I didn’t mean it like that…” Max said, trying to take back the damage. “I meant…”

“I know what you meant,” he cut her off, sighing. He wasn’t mad at her for thinking that, but he couldn’t lie to himself that he wasn’t upset. “I meant what I said. I won’t tell any of the others if you don’t want me to. I can’t promise how long you’ll be able to stay here without anyone else knowing, but if someone finds out it won’t be because of me.” Silently, Max closed her mouth and nodded in response. El looked over at Mike, concerned.

From the entrance to the basement, Mike’s mother called down to let them know that Hopper was here to pick El up. Max watched them walk up the stairs in silence, too afraid that someone would hear her to say something. Walking up the stairs with El, he saw her scribble something in her notebook.

_She’s wrong, you know. I know you give a shit._

Mike sighed. “She has her reasons for thinking what she does…I basically shunned her for an entire month before I accepted her as part of the party. She has every reason to think I don’t give a shit.”

She shook her head in disagreement quickly. _You’re helping her now, which is what’s important. You’re a good friend._

Mike gave her a half smile as he led her outside. “Thanks, El…” he said, looking at her as he felt his cheeks heat up a little bit. Even while outside in the cold and dark of the late November night, he still couldn’t help himself from blushing every time he looked at her. “I want to help her, but I’m not sure how. What should we do?”

El paused to consider before writing down. _We should wait. She doesn’t feel ready to tell everyone yet. If she knows we support her, then she’ll tell the others soon._

“You’re right,” Mike said. El gave him a small smile before looking back at the station wagon not too far away from them parked on the side of the road, headlights shining out and piercing through the night. Even though he knew that “Thanks for being this helpful, I know it’s kind of weird that I’m hiding a girl in my basement,” he said quietly so as no one overheard them. “Trust me, this isn’t a usual thing that we do.”

El nodded, pursing her lips. _Do you and Max like each other?_

Mike nearly choked on his own spit as his eyes bulged. “ _No!_ ” he said emphatically. In all honesty, the thought of being with any girl now that El was a part of his life seemed impossible to him right now. Even though he hadn’t asked El out officially yet, outside of the Snowball. “No, absolutely not. Dustin and Lucas have always been interested in Max, but I’ve never liked her. I mean, I do like her, but not like _that_ , I mean, the way I think you’re asking. We’re just friends, trust me.”

El smiled bemusedly, grinning up at him as she held her notebook to her chest. He was rambling again when he got embarrassed, he realized. _Calm down Mike, I believe you_ , she wrote to him. _I was just curious._

“Oh. Good. I just wanted to make that clear,” Mike said, his cheeks reddening. He gave her a nervous smile. El smiled back.

_Good._

For the next few seconds, Mike’s world completely stopped. One minute, he saw El looking up at him with the shy smile he had grown to love; the next, the short distance between them was gone, and she had her lips pressed against his. The kiss didn’t last long, and by the time that she had pulled away Mike was still processing exactly what happened. Once his brain registered that El, the girl he was infatuated with, had just _kissed_ him, his jaw dropped open as he stared into her eyes. Despite her shy and reserved nature, there was a fire present in those eyes. Now, for the first time, Mike had been able to see that fire, even if only for just a brief moment. And it left him speechless.

The honk of a car horn from the street made Mike jump as he glanced over to the police station wagon. El rolled her eyes and began to walk away, giving him one last wide smile and a wave before leaving to go to his more than likely very disgruntled adoptive father. Mike, still with his dumbfounded expression, weakly lifted his hand in a small goodbye. He watched her get into the vehicle and stood outside as the car sped off into the night.

As Mike stumbled back inside and up to his room, he couldn’t help but stop that damned goofy grin from spreading across his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so sorry for the long wait, and for a shorter chapter!!! I wanted to give you guys something after not updating this story for so long just to let you know that I was still working on this. Unfortunately I've had so much work to do, and plus the new season of Stranger Things also ate up some time and made me want to think of what changes I wanted to make to this. (By the way, how amazing was season 2??? LOVE!!) 
> 
> I started this chapter a while ago with an implied Dustin/Max shipping, but the new season's Lucas and Max relationship is seriously making me question whether that's the right move. I'm keeping it up in the air for now, at least. Of course, some things about Max's family in this will be inaccurate to the show, but the side plot of Max staying at Mike's will all come to fruition next chapter, trust me. My main focus is on these two lovelies.
> 
> I hope this will be enough to tide anyone following this story over for now, although I know it's somewhat short compared to the last few chapters. It might take a little while, but more is to come with this story. Kudos and comments are really appreciated, it helps me keep going. As always, thanks for reading :)


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